I would like to share with you work of "Masdar Institute of Science and Techology" - biodegradable polymer capsules to create microbial soil conditions in UAE.

 

New research at Masdar Institute of Science and Techology is working to create microbial soil conditions in the UAE to help boost domestic farming crops and slash water-intensive agricultural operations.

Its "novel innovation" will see UAE sand and soil enriched with microbes that would be slowly released from micro-biodegradable polymer spheres.

According to Dr Hector Hernandez, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Masdar - The spheres — measuring roughly a millimetre across — comprised mainly alginate, a compound that breaks down in the environment within six to 20 days .

Biodegradable polymers derived from natural sources have been used on a worldwide scale and have also been approved for food and human use by many governmental bodies. Alginate is used in many food and pharmaceutical applications and is readily available for use.

Dr Hernandez is acting as adviser to UAE national graduate student Fatima Al Jallaf, whose soil fertility enhancing project is expected to improve the UAE's ability to support farming by spreading microbes through the soil through the polymer capsule delivery method and improve the UAE's ability to sustainably support crops.

Fatima's work can help convert arid sand and soil in the UAE into more productive farming land to help increase domestic food security through locally grown produce.

Healthy soil is teeming with millions of microorganisms who perform a variety of functions, such as removing toxins and storing carbon. The problem with the UAE's desert soil is that it is largely devoid of carbon sources and these helpful microorganisms. This research is an attempt to bring these growth-promoting bacteria into the soil.

The UAE's soil and its high sand and low nutrient content is not the best environment for producing crops.

Sandy soil draws far higher quantities of water to grow food with as much as 70 per cent of the UAE's water consumed by irrigation.

These biodegradable polymer spheres need to be able to survive and operate in the UAE's harsh environment and these beads need to be populated with local indigenous microbial species to prevent any import of non-native biological agents. This is a very complex set of factors that needs to be met before any product is tested in a closed system designed to mimic the UAE environment. After all of these experiments and trials, then there needs to be an assessment of the effects of large scale deployment of these systems.

This is what makes Fatima's research so challenging but, at the same time, so exciting.They need to be able to develop biodegradable compounds that can serve as microcosms for soil regenerating microbial communities.

Fatima and Dr Hernandez are working with Dr Pance Naumov, from New York University Abu Dhabi and his postdoctoral associate, Dr Lidon Zhang, to come up with the best sodium alginate capsule that can withstand the harsh desert conditions in order to help disperse microbes through the soil.

The UAE has a long-standing focus on increasing its agricultural output for improved food security and economic diversity. But the country?s soil is not naturally conducive to agriculture, with its high sand and low nutrient content, making crop growth challenging and water-intensive. More than 70 per cent of the UAE?s water use goes towards irrigation for agriculture although food imports still amount to between 85 per cent and 90 per cent of the UAE?s food consumption each year.

Her soil fertility enhancing project is expected to improve the UAE?s ability to support farming by spreading microbes through the soil through the polymer capsule delivery method and improve the UAE?s ability to sustainably support crops.

Soil plays a significant role in the food-water-energy nexus. The UAE?s soil requires a lot of water, which it gets through irrigation. And irrigation pumping consumes a lot of energy. By enhancing the soil?s ability to retain water and grow more crops through these microbeads, the country could potentially save a lot of water and energy and increase its domestic food production.

 Source : Gulf News , The Gulf Today